Winter Dual – Round 3

Twas the night before Christmas, well about a week actually, and the 3 wise men were no where to be seen. Well, maybe they were tucked up warm and dry in bed or perhaps having a pint with some dry friends. Because, there were certainly no wisemen present in the Park last night. Only fools and loons who would even think to come out and race in such conditions. I truly do not understand the current weather patterns. Every two weeks… at about 7… it starts to rain. The rest of the time is seemingly pretty dry, but EVERY dual this year has been wet and or freezing cold. Last night was pure, unadulterated, miserable rain… and everyone was beaming… most of the time.

As is traditional pre-Christmas, certain modifications to our well oiled dual machine were in play. Firstly, everyone has to dress for the occasion. Santa style. The sight of 20 santas training it down a greasy dual track is still burned on my retinas. Truly a sight to behold. Especially when one spills and takes a roll in the mud. Soggy Santa. The second modification is to the prizes; this is done secret santa style, with each prize being worth 3 quid minimum and wrapped up so no one knows what they are choosing from the pile.

The racing was tight or on the floor. I’d marked out a slightly different style of track for the evening with fast and wide open corners at the top but ended with tight and devilishly slick turns to finish. There was one right hander with a leaf faux-berm which caught out many, including myself. The bank of leaves masked a river of mud causing front wheels to wash before said wheel impacted on a tree in very close proximity. Bowman had the best impact with the tree during his semis run stopping dead.

The finals came down to a small battle between James ‘Bike Garage‘ Irwin and Joe ‘Steel City Media‘ Bowman and a big battle between the brothers ‘Splatshop‘ Pearson. Chris managed to just edge Tim out but only by 0.1 seconds. Was it a coincidence that Chris’ better half, Steph Anderson, our race timing Queen had the her fingers on the button? Yes absolutely, she’s a professional. Thank you so much Steph… you’re an absolute star.

Photo: Will Blomfield

Prize giving was performed underneath a ground sheet tent kept aloft by poles made of racers. There were some great rewards from Booze to 2 metres of chocolate. Once we’d managed to pack up all the soggy kit we fled to the Lescar for a well earned pint where we ran in the On-One’s Brant Richards out on Planet X’s works do… he soon ditched them and joined us. Good lad.

Three weeks in, the dual leader board is starting to shape up. The Pearson’s are tied at the top which is going to turn in to a great battle further down the series.

Thats it for 2013. We resume in 2014! Thanks to all the nutters who love dual as much as I do and are prepared to turn out in the worst conditions mother nature can throw at us.

''King of the mates race, Nick is the man with the plans. Always riding all sorts of bikes in all sorts of weather's Nick is a key player in the Sheffield bike scene.....and his hair is better now''
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